Hooray for free samples!

No, I'm not talking about the little free samples of strange concoctions at the grocery store.... free paper samples! My favorite kind!

I recently found some pocket-folds on paperpresentation.com that I'm thinking about using for our save-the-dates. The pockets they offer are a good price, and there is a nice range of colors and styles. When I was perusing the website to find a place to order samples, I couldn't find any such information. Most of these paper websites offer samples, but they typically run from $5-$7 per sample, which can get a little pricey if you are comparing several colors, styles, etc.

I proceeded to use the handy dandy "contact us" link and emailed the Paper Presentation folks to see if I could get a sample or two. They wrote back to tell me that I could get up to FIVE samples, at no charge! Unheard of! Exactly six days later, I received the five different samples I ordered, in an envelope with $2 worth of postage. And I didn't have to pay a penny.


Yay for vendors who realize that treating customers well from the beginning will pay off later on!

Another bonus about Paper Presentation is that they guarantee satisfaction with their products, and if you're not satisfied you can return them within 60 days.

Have you found any other vendors out there (paper or non-paper) that offer free samples for your convenience? Share 'em with the hive!

New Inspiration from a Soon-to-be-Forgotten Friend

One of my favorite magazines is Martha Stewart's Blueprint. It's tagline is "Design Your Life" and it is identified as "The fresh, fun guide to personal style." That it is, Martha; that it is!

For a while I was reading/trying to get into Martha Stewart Living, but it was just a little too far beyond where I am in my life. As much as it was chock full of great ideas for entertaining, organizing, and cooking, I would always come away from it feeling a bit inadequate. I can't cook all that stuff! (My oven is like 9" wide and there is no window or light so I can't even see what I'm cooking most of the time.) I can't afford all that stuff to organize my laundry room! Heck, I don't even HAVE a laundry room! It was nice to ponder and dream about someday having a summer house and a craft room and an entire built-in shelf system completely devoted to organizing my personal photos, but it just wasn't practical or attainable for my 27-year-old-still-grasping-the-concept-of-adulthood self.

Blueprint is so much more my speed and style. It has that magical Martha touch with a bit more of a youthful sensibility to it. Unfortunately, it was just announced that this publication will soon be a distant memory, as it has only one issue left :-( I found this news via Perfect Bound, one of my favorite blogs, and nearly cried.

I will not let Blueprint go down without at least taking away some great inspiration from it. I absolutely love the font used for the masthead and throughout the magazine, so I went ahead and purchased it. The font is called Fling and it's the perfect combination of whimsy and modern, especially with the fun alternates that can be used as design elements. I used this font for our wedding website (which I'll be blogging about soon!), and I hope to use it on other wedding stationery items as well.



Do you have a favorite non-wedding magazine, website, newspaper, etc. that you also turn to for wedding-planning inspiration?

The DIY bride with nothing to D

I claim that I am a DIY bride, but I don't actually have anything to show for it just yet. I swear, I'm getting there -- but what can one really begin to do 13 months before her wedding? Is there really anything that extremely creative that can get done so far in advance?

Aside from getting to marry Mr. Blushing, my favorite part of this whole wedding planning gig is that I will be able to do what I do best: design every single printed piece that will have a place at our wedding. I have made my own little side-business out of designing wedding invitations and stationery for other brides over the last few years, and it is really where I find my greatest happiness as a graphic designer. Designing for myself has always been a difficult task, though, as I am my own most indecisive client. Designing for yourself when there is no one telling you plain and clear what they like and don't like is actually a real challenge.

As such, wedding magazines have really helped me to pin-point styles I like as far as invitations and corresponding materials go. One piece from Martha Stewart Weddings Fall 2006 issue is this great collection by Peculiar Pair Press (their website is also super cool):


I like the juxtaposition of the contemporary pattern against the orchid motif. It makes for a nice contrast and creates the ability to mix up the elements so there is always a bit of a surprise as far as how each new piece looks. To me, it still says formal, but it also says that this is a really hip couple with a great sense of style.

Of course, this does not go with my color scheme, but this is a visual that has remained in my memory since I first saw it, so I think I am going to use this as an inspiration point for my designs to come. I am starting to tinker with save-the-date ideas, even though I don't plan to send these out until January. More time to obsess, right??